Updated: Sir John Carling site approved by heritage minister as location for new Ottawa hospital

After a week of political drama and head-spinning developments, the Civic hospital has a new home: on the former site of the Sir John Carling building at the eastern edge of the Experimental Farm.

Hospital officials say they would like to see the new $2-billion super hospital open on the site by 2026.

While the process hasn’t been finalized, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly put her stamp of approval on the site Friday, saying in a statement she would request federal officials “make all the necessary preparations to make this land available as the future location” of a new Civic hospital.

Her statement followed consensus by politicians from all three levels of government – including Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna – on the issue Friday morning. They stood with Ottawa Hospital officials at a press conference at city hall, where they brushed off the National Capital Commission’s recommendation to build a new Civic hospital at Tunney’s Pasture and called the Sir John Carling site the best location for a new hospital.

The agreement among politicians and hospital officials ended a week of rapid-fire political developments that began when the NCC announced last Thursday that Tunney’s Pasture was the ideal site for a new Civic hospital.

That decision, which was said to have been met with shock and disbelief by officials from The Ottawa Hospital, was quickly rejected by the hospital board. It said the site had too many problems, including patient access, potential delay because of buildings that would have to be demolished, and costs. Local Liberal MPPs piled on, supporting the hospital’s rejection of the site.

After the board’s rejection of Tunney’s on Monday, politicians from three levels of government met throughout the week with hospital officials and reached an agreement that the new building should go on the site of the former Sir John Carling building.

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McKenna’s involvement was notable because she had pushed for the hospital to look beyond farm research fields for a site and had released a statement last week supporting the NCC. On Friday, she said Sir John Carling was the right spot for the hospital, but noted that the NCC process had highlighted the need for a centrally located hospital close to public transit — both of which fit the new location.

The site includes 50 acres on two levels stretching from the current NCC parking lot near Dow’s Lake heading west and up an embankment to the former site of the Sir John Carling building.

The NCC says it was its second choice as the best site for a new Civic hospital. The hospital also ranked it relatively high as a potential site in the past, but raised concerns about a fault line running through it and its potential to make construction more costly, in part, because of its irregular shape and topography.

On Friday, hospital CEO Jack Kitts said the fault line was not a major issue. NCC CEO Mark Kristmanson called it a “moderate issue” that can be dealt with through engineering and design. The site, unlike earlier versions considered by the hospital, only contains one building, the cafeteria annex from the demolished Sir John Carling building. The hospital said the site addresses its concerns around access, costs and timelines.

Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi said he wants to help expedite the process so work on the hospital design could begin soon. It is not clear, though, whether the site will be more costly than the hospital had anticipated. It has said it expects a new hospital to cost $2 billion. The hospital would raise about $400 million in the community. The University of Ottawa Heart Institute, which currently operates alongside the Civic hospital, says it will not leave the existing site for 20 to 25 years.

The Sir John Carling federal government building, formerly on the site, was demolished with a dramatic implosion in 2014, just five months before former Ottawa Conservative MP John Baird promised 60 acres of Central Experimental Farm research fields across Carling Avenue from the existing hospital for a new building. That decision, made with no public consultation, became a lightning rod for controversy with people in Ottawa, across Canada and around the world concerned about the destruction of farm research lands and a heritage site.

WATCH: The demolition of the Sir John Carling Building

On Friday, Leslie Maitland of the Coalition to Protect the Central Experimental Farm, called Sir John Carling a “win-win. We appreciate that a reasonable compromise has been achieved.” Although the site is on the farm, it is not on or directly beside research fields.

Beginning late last year, the Liberal government signalled it wanted to look at new possible sites for a hospital, which eventually resulted in Heritage Minister Joly asking the NCC to review 12 sites. The $100,000 review and consultation process concluded last week with the Tunney’s Pasture recommendation.

Mayor Jim Watson, who is an ex-officio member of the NCC board but who was sick when it made its recommendation, was critical of the NCC process on Friday, saying some things could have been done better. The hospital, which only learned of the decision the night before, should have been given a greater say before the final report came out, he said. NCC board chair Russell Mills has said he was surprised to learn the hospital was so opposed to Tunney’s.

Sources told the Citizen that hospital officials, who preferred the original site at the western edge of the Experimental Farm, were reeling after the NCC recommended Tunney’s Pasture.

Mills and Kristmanson defended the NCC process in an interview Friday, saying it helped lead to the consensus that a new hospital should be on rapid transit. The Sir John Carling site is close to the Trillium Line, which will eventually connect with the LRT.

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre called it an awkward political compromise. “The hospital has been forced into accepting an inferior location in order to help the Liberals save face.”

But other local politicians and NCC officials termed the consensus a great day for health care in Ottawa.

“We have spent many years in talks over the location of this hospital,” said Naqvi. “It is time to shift our focus to what this hospital will look like.”

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